Category Archives: friends

Spring in Minnesota makes me feel all rambly…..

Edited to add: Boy, did I ramble. Anyone who actually reads through this entire post truly deserves some sort of prize, like having your favorite incredibly gorgeous actor/ress showing up on your doorstep with a case of wine and extra large box of chocolates. And yarn and fabric.

There is something about the springs rains in Minnesota. The sky is still the same gray you’ve been looking at all winter but suddenly there is green everywhere. Looking at all that green makes me realize what is just around the corner, if only I can make it through the mud, muck and cold wet jackets. It makes me unfocused and wandering around from task to task, a little of this, a little of that. So that’s the sort of blog post you’ll be getting from me today. A summary of sorts, since I haven’t done that in awhile anyway. I’ll even do bullets, just for kicks.

  • My screen free week was not as productive as I’d hoped. The combination of extreme sleepiness along with my discovery of  Patrick Rothfuss meant that I was either reading, falling asleep while reading, (terrible when all you want to do is read the book!), falling asleep while putting the boys to bed, or sleeping. Very little crafting happened, if any.
  • Speaking of Patrick Rothufss, I started his second book yesterday, and while looking at his blog today figured out that we both went to UWSP (where he now teaches and lives) at the same time. Not only that, but we studied some of the same subjects and more than likely crossed paths quite often, maybe even had a class together, as it’s a small school. This made me feel like I was about thirteen and had temptations to go to his Facebook page and say something dorky and stupid about going to school together.  I resisted. However it’s driving me nuts because I can’t remember if I knew him for sure. In fact, I realized that although I majored in history I can’t remember the name of one friend in the history department (despite being treasurer of the History Club and attending many pizza nights) and the names of only two professors. Do we really start to forget this stuff this young? Sheesh, I’m only thirty-seven!
  • Speaking of crafting, I do have pictures to share. I managed to squeak out four quilt blocks for Annik’s Log Cabin’s for Japan project. I pieced together one quilt and although I tried, fell asleep with the boys both nights that I had planned on quilting and binding it. Luckily Annik is a quilting maniac and finished it up. Be sure to look at the Flickr group to see them. How amazing to have all these beautiful squares from all over the country put together like this! Annik did a wonderful job organizing; I’m lucky to have her as a friend.
  • Because every blog post deserves pictures, we’ll have an interlude with my blocks….

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  • Making log cabin blocks is very, very addicting. I had to make myself stop at 1:30am.
  • So here’s more random…..I had a very nice and interestingcomment from a new reader. She said she’d really like to follow my blog, but wished I allowed the full post in my RSS feed. Now I also agree how annoying it is when you subscribe to everything in a reader but still have to click on the blogs to go and read the full post, so I understand how she feels. But, I know when I changed it to a short feed a few years ago it was because someone told me my blog was being reprinted in some sort of other feed, without my name/consent and that a shortened feed was the only was to stop it. Honestly, I can barely even remember the details. It seems half the bloggers out there these days have shortened feeds and half do not. Anyone know the latest these days? Anyone have a preference? I’m considering making it a full feed again but don’t want to if it means all my work is ripped off….
  • Onto more crafting, Project Spectrum starts this weekend!! And this year, I am determined to do the whole darn thing.
  • Lolly’s suggestions made me sign up for Tumblr although I’m not quite sure that I need more sites to clog my brain. Maybe I don’t quite get the draw yet. Anyway, if you’re on there come and find me. I’m Knittymama, as usual!
  • Speaking of technology, I broke my Nook. And no, I didn’t buy the extended warranty even though I have three small people in my house. Because my brain is on such massive overload I seriously can’t keep anything else in it, like remembering to buy a warranty. Let’s hope the Skeptic’s extreme tech skills will allow him to replace the screen successfully.
  • Speaking of my small people, I have to report that Spinner is finally talking away. I can’t remember how much I blogged about this, but last November, when he was about 26 months, he had a vocabulary of about 10 words, all which pretty much sounded the same. After a few months of speech therapy he’s talking all the time, which is a joy to hear. He’s got a lot of work left yet, as his articulation is pretty bad, but just the fact that he’s talking now is awesome; he’s come a log way already.  Sentences are hard for him, and he says them in a very cute way that makes it sound like he puts a period after each word. So today when I brought home a giant bag of cat food (which I guess was exciting for some reason) he said, “Big. Cat. Food. Mama?” So sweet, and so nice to hear.
  • And although I could probably do ten more bullets (spinning! red stuff! my newly finished vest! pants for boys! food allergies! kids and mud and worms! Dr. Who!) I’ll spare you the rest, for today, and save it for a later date.
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Filed under friends, giving, Project Spectrum, Quilting, random

Welcome!

I’m so excited to have made it into  Whip Up this week! If this is your first visit over here, welcome!! Feel free to take a look around and say “hello!” And if you’re already a regular reader here but not familiar with Whip Up, I highly recommend you take a peek over there. It’s my favorite go-to site for news and ideas in the crafting world.

Just a quick sneak peek today at what I call The Drag Around Family Blanket. I’ll have a simple tutorial coming up for it next week sometime. If you have some basic sewing skills and have been wanting to try your hand at a bigger  but very doable project, this one is for you!
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More important, I’m very, very remiss to not have mentioned this earlier, since it’s a project organized by one of my best friends. Annik over at Mini Mushrooms has organized Log Cabins for Japan. Make a log cabin block or two (or ten!) and mail them in by next week. She has a great tutorial up if you’ve never made one before. I know what I’ll be sewing this weekend!

Log Cabins for Japan

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Filed under friends, giving, Quilting, sewing

Halloween recap and a sweater

Happy Election Day everyone!!!!

So Halloween was fun if not a bit frantic, in a busy sort of way. We always carve pumpkins on Halloween, but this along with the excitement of trick-or-treating makes for some serious craziness.
We did get the pumpkins carved:
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I completed my worst sewing project ever:
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(I think this is the worst picture I’ve ever taken too.)

My mastitis came back this week so my plans for a super-cool Robin hood hat turned into this:
1. Wrap green felt around Little Man’s head and trim.
2. Blanket stitch around top.
3. Run out of thread, oh well, it’s close enough.
4. Give to five year old who still thinks it’s the best hat ever.

We carved, had pizza and trick-or-treated down the block. I realized we are the stingiest candy givers on the block. My neighbors literally give handfuls out!! Which means that even though they only went to seven houses the boys had a huge pile of sugar, yikes!!

I finally had a nice sunny morning to take pictures of Spinner in his gorgeous sweater made by my friend Joyce from my knitting group.
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Look at that chin!!

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Hopefully he’ll be in a good enough mood to finally go to knitting tonight so she can see him wear it in person. I really want to get there too, I’ll need to chill out a bit before an evening of election results. I can’t believe how nervous I am about this one. I just hope I can stay up late enough to know the results.

Go Barack, go!!!!

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Filed under family, friends, kids, sweaters

Slacker

Yes, that’s me. I haven’t read a blog or updated my blog for over a week now. My free minutes have been few and far between, and probably will be for a few more weeks. But I’m still here and will try to pop in as I can. We’ll see how much catching up I can do today.

The good news is that my own personal genius, the Skeptic, has fixed my camera. So I do have photos to share. Today’s photo? My Fleece Artist scarf, the last photo I took before I dropped my camera and smashed up the lens.

Fleece Artist scarf

This is from one of their scarf kits, it’s a thick and thin wool and a silk boucle. It’s super warm and perfect for this winter we’re having. The only problem? It sheds like crazy and I’m walking around the city looking like I have a long haired white cat who I let sleep on my coat. I tried to explain to the Skeptic that I needed a new coat that would hide my constantly shedding scarf and he gave me “the look.” That is the “we barely have extra money to order out pizza right now and you want a new coat to go with your scarf?” Um, yeah. Okay, so no new coat right now.

So there you have it, some actual knitting content.

My other main order of business is to catch up with the wonderful award that both Catherine and Lia gave me:

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This truly did make my day, and now I get to pass it on to ten others who really do make my day, those who I miss when I have a week like this past one has been. But first I need to say “right back at’cha!” to both Catherine and Lia. Catherine is a wonderful friend who I don’t get to see enough lately (I miss my Tuesday night knitting!). Lia was my first coffee swap partner and a sweet person who dyes beautiful, gorgeous yarn. Her package was the first time anyone ever dyed any yarn just for me, and I felt very spoiled. Thank you both so much for thinking of me!!!

So in addition to the two awesome ladies above, here are ten more very fine bloggers!

Nuttnbunny:  Oh, can she spin! And I think she must spin in her sleep, she seems to get so much done.

Jess: A friend that I first met when Little Man and her oldest were both babies. We hadn’t seen each other for while, but then started reading each other’s blogs, both of us wondering, “hmmmm, is that her? ” And it was. I’m glad we’re both running in the same circles again, and her blog is a nice way to keep in touch as we still don’t see each other all that much.

Chris: How else would I keep up with all my knit-blogging news? And you can’t beat cats and knitting!

Paige: A new blogger,  she always has great thrifting finds and some beautiful projects.

Jennifer:  An all around talented crafter and the Fiberflix queen! (Although now that our tv is busted I’m even worse at keeping up with all those great movies.)

Jody: She knits, sews, spins, and takes lovely pictures!

Marsha:  My fellow vegetarian-knitter-mom and another former swap partner. Not just knitting, she’s got a great mix of interesting stuff on her blog.

Sheepish Annie:  Funny, funny, funny. And just to be sure you know, she’s very funny.

Dottycookie: A lovely mixture of creative goods!!

Guinifer:  You want to keep up on your sock yarn? Then her blog is not to be missed!

Wow, so hard to pick only ten out of the 196 blogs I have in my bloglines. Yeah, I know that’s crazy. But everyone is so talented, I hate to miss it!

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Filed under friends, scarf